Birth Certificate No Longer Mandatory for Getting Passport in India!!!

In order to streamline, liberalize and ease the process of issue of passport, the Ministry of External Affairs has taken a number of steps in the realm of passport policy which is expected to benefit the citizens of India applying for a passport.

As per the extant statutory provisions of the Passport Rules, 1980, all the applicants born on or after 26/01/1989, in order to get a passport, had to, hitherto, mandatorily submit the Birth Certificate as the proof of Date of Birth (DOB). It has now been decided that all applicants of passports can submit any one of the following documents as the proof of DOB while submitting the passport application:

Birth Certificate (BC) issued by the Registrar of Births & Deaths or the Municipal Corporation under the Registration of Birth & Deaths Act, 1969 to register the birth of a child born in India;

Transfer/School leaving/Matriculation Certificate issued by the school last attended/recognized educational board containing the DOB of the applicant;

PAN Card issued by the Income Tax Department with the DOB of applicant;

Aadhar Card/E-Aadhar having the DOB of applicant;

Copy of the extract of the service record of the applicant (only in respect of Government servants) or the Pay Pension Order (in respect of retired Government Servants), duly attested/certified by the officer/in-charge of the Administration of the concerned Ministry/Department of the applicant, having his DOB;

Driving license issued by the Transport Department of concerned State Government, having the DOB of applicant;

Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) issued by the Election Commission of India having the DOB of applicant;

Policy Bond issued by the LIC/Companies having the DOB of the holder of the insurance policy.

The following policy changes have been made inter-alia on the basis of the recommendations of the three member committee.

The online passport application form now requires the applicant to provide the name of father or mother or legal guardian, i.e., only one parent and not both.

The total number of Annexes prescribed in the Passport Rule, 1980, has been brought down to 9 from the present 15. Annexes A, C, D, E, J, and K have been removed and certain Annexes have been merged.

No attestation/swearing by/before any Notary/Executive Magistrate/First Class Judicial Magistrate would be henceforth necessary.

Married applicants would not be required to provide Annexure K or any marriage certificate.

The Passport application form does not require the applicant to provide the name of her/his spouse in case of separated or divorced persons.

For more details Click Here to view Ministry of External Affairs website.